Games User Research

Edited by Anders Drachen, Pejman Mirza-Babaei, and Lennart Nacke

Most robust and comprehensive overview of Games User Research (GUR) and Game User Experience (UX) best practices that exists, covering all aspects of user research and UX in games

Most robust and comprehensive overview of Games User Research (GUR) and Game User Experience (UX) best practices that exists, covering all aspects of user research and UX in games

Practical advice from the experts who do UX research and user-centred testing of games every day

Integrates the latest research and knowledge across industry and academia, distilling the wisdom of dozens of professionals with combined hundreds of years of experience

Latest topics in Games User Research and Game UX are covered, including GUR in production, GUR process, VR, analytics, physiological methods, reporting, mobile user research, with case studies from commercial titles and more

Heavily illustrated with colour screenshots

Games User Research

Edited by Anders Drachen, Pejman Mirza-Babaei, and Lennart Nacke

Description

Games live and die commercially on the player experience. Games User Research is collectively the way we optimise the quality of the user experience (UX) in games, working with all aspects of a game from the mechanics and interface, visuals and art, interaction and progression, making sure every element works in concert and supports the game UX.

This means that Games User Research is essential and integral to the production of games and to shape the experience of players. Today, Games User Research stands as the primary pathway to understanding players and how to design, build, and launch games that provide the right game UX.

Until now, the knowledge in Games User Research and Game UX has been fragmented and there were no comprehensive, authoritative resources available. This book bridges the current gap of knowledge in Games User Research, building the go-to resource for everyone working with players and games or other interactive entertainment products. It is accessible to those new to Games User Research, while being deeply comprehensive and insightful for even hardened veterans of the game industry. In this book, dozens of veterans share their wisdom and best practices on how to plan user research, obtain the actionable insights from users, conduct user-centred testing, which methods to use when, how platforms influence user research practices, and much, much more.

Games User Research

Edited by Anders Drachen, Pejman Mirza-Babaei, and Lennart Nacke

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to Games User Research, Anders Drachen, Pejman Mirza-Babaei, and Lennart Nacke2. Games User Research as part of the Development Process in the Game Industry: Challenges and Best practices, Veronica Zammitto3. It's All About Process, David Tisserand4. Post-launch in Game User Research, Ian Livingston5. A GUR Maturity Model, Graham McAllister6. Designing A Games User Research Lab From Scratch, Sebastian Long7. User experience maturity levels: Evaluating and improving Game User Research practices, Michael C. Medlock8. A Framework for Player Research, Graham McAllister and Sebastian Long9. Surveys in Games User Research, Florian Bruhlmann & Elisa D. Mekler10. Interviewing Players, Steve Bromley11. Observing the Player Experience, Mirweis Sangin12. The Think Aloud Protocol, Tom Knoll13. The Rapid Iterative Test and Evaluation Method (RITE), Michael C. Medlock14. Heuristic Uncovered for Game User Researchers and Game Designers, Heather Desurvire and Dennis Wixon15. Heuristic Evaluation of Playability: Examples from Social Games Research and Free-to-Play Heuristics, Janne Paavilainen16. Introduction to Biometrics Measures for Game User Research, Lennart Nacke17. Developing actionable biometric insights for production teams: case studies and key learnings, Pierre Chalfoun, Jonathan Dankoff18. Reporting User Research Findings to the Development Team, Pejman Mirza-Babaei19. Game Analytics for Game User Research, Anders Drachen and ShawnConnor20. Punching Above Your Weight: How small studios can leverage data for an unfair advantage, Lysiane Charest21. Affordable and Data-Driven User Research for Indie Studios, Pejman Mirza-Babaei and Thomas Galati22. Play as if you were home, Guillaume Louvel23. Dissecting the Dragon: GUR for Dragon Age: Inquisition, James Berg24. Running User Tests with Limited Resources and Experience, Julien Huguenin25. Starting from Scratch: Pragmatic and Scalable Guidelines to Impactful Games User Research, Johan Dorell and Bjorn Berg Marklund26. Strategies for Understanding and Researching Mobile Games in Context, Steven Schirra and Brooke White27. Involving Players With Special Needs in Games User Research, Kathrin Gerling, Conor Linehan and ReganMandryk28. Gamer Motivation Profiling: Uses and Applications, Nick Yee and Nicolas Ducheneaut29. Social Network Analysis in Games User Research, Johanna Pirker30. A short guide to user testing for simulation sickness in Virtual Reality, Ben Lewis-Evans31. Front lines in Games User Research, Anders Drachen, Pejman Mirza-Babaei, and Lennart Nacke

Games User Research

Edited by Anders Drachen, Pejman Mirza-Babaei, and Lennart Nacke

Author Information

Anders Drachen, Veteran Data Scientist, University of York,Lennart Nacke, Associate Professor, HCI Games Group, University of Waterloo,Pejman Mirza-Babaei, Assistant Professor, University of Ontario Institute of Technology

Dr. Anders Drachen, Ph.D. is a veteran Data Scientist, Professor at the Digital Creativity Labs, University of York (UK). His multiple award-winning work in data- and game science is focused on game analytics and business intelligence. His research and professional work is carried out in collaboration with companies spanning the industry. He is one of the most published scientists worldwide on game analytics, virtual economics, user research, game data mining, and user profiling. He is a former member of the board of the IGDA SIG on Game User Research.

Lennart Nacke, PhD, is the director of the HCI Games Group and an associate professor for human-computer interaction and game design at the University of Waterloo. He is a world-leading authority on the cognitive and emotional aspects of player experience in video games, with a special focus on physiological metrics and gameful design. He has authored more than 100 research publications on these topics, which have been cited more than 8,000 times. He is also working as a gamification and user experience consultant. He chaired the Computer-Human Interaction (CHI) PLAY 2014 and Gamification 2013 conferences, and is currently the chair of the CHI PLAY steering committee. He is an editor of multiple research journals and a subcommittee co-chair of CHI 2017 and CHI 2018. He has served on the steering committee of the International Game Developers Association Special Interest Group on Games User Research and loves the GUR community.

Dr. Pejman Mirza-Babaei is an Assistant Professor for Human-Computer Interaction and Games User Research at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. He is also the User Research Director at Execution Labs, Montreal. He has been involved with the Games User Research community since 2009, where he has published more than 40 articles, co-organized workshops and courses in international conferences. He has contributed to more than 22 published commercial games, including awards winning titles such as Pewdiepie Legend of the Brofist, Crysis 2, and Weirdwood Manor among many others.

Games User Research

Edited by Anders Drachen, Pejman Mirza-Babaei, and Lennart Nacke

Reviews and Awards

"Games user research has come a long way in the last 2 decades, and this book is a testament to that progress. With chapters on lab setup and recruiting all the way to doing research on VR, this book covers it all. It will be a great resource for those getting into the field as well as industry veterans. I can confidently say that if you are involved in games user research there will be something of value to you in this book." -- Bruce Phillips, PhD, Xbox Research at Microsoft

"User research is a commonly underestimated but incredibly important part of the design and ongoing evolution interactive products. Anyone building interactive applications should consider and evaluate the user experience, and in games there is a great deal of knowledge on this. Games User Research unlocks that knowledge and makes it actionable for everyone." -- Dr. Christian Thurau, co-founder of Twenty Billion Neurons and Game Analytics

"Over the last 15 years, game user research has evolved into a distinct and innovative field, spearheading methods like data analytics or biometrics for user research. Yet researchers and students in HCI and games had no easy entryway into this body of work -- until now. Game User Research is poised to become the reference handbook and default textbook of the field: comprehensive, succinct, and accessible. This book has been long overdue." -- Dr Sebastian Deterding, Reader, Digital Creativity Labs, University of York, UK

"Game user research is a vital part of game development, but getting a handle on how to work with players to improve the game experience can be challenging. This book is loaded with wisdom from dozens of professionals across industry and academia, and provides an invaluable resource on how to build the best strategy for user research." -- Ian Livingstone CBE, Chairman, Sumo Digital

"For a startup providing predictive analytics solutions for digital games, this book is a great compendium and contains a precious list of use cases. It does not only cover game analytics in detail but also presents a great overview on the state-of-the-art in game user research." -- Fabian Hadiji, CEO, Goedle.io

"So many books, so little time: this is the must read for anyone in industry working on gameful experiences." -- Regina Bernhaupt, Director User Experience Research, Ruwido Austria GmbH

"The Games User Research book gathers a broad spectrum of methods from the perspective of experts from both industry and academy. It will no doubt prove valuable to anyone interested in getting up to speed on this important topic." -- Katherine Isbister, Professor of Computational Media, UC Santa Cruz and author of Game Usability

"If you have an interest in understanding the science of interaction design in games, just read this book." -- Mike Ambinder, Experimental Psychologist, Valve Corporation and Affiliate Assistant Professor, University of Washington

"This book is an impressive community effort with the editors incorporating the work of dozens of contributors, which makes for a thorough overview filled with a diversity of perspectives around games user research, and an invaluable resource for us all." -- Drew Davidson, Director and Teaching Professor, Entertainment Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon University

"From practical methods and pragmatic takeaways across the wide spectrum of game development, to more thoughtful future-thinking topics, this book is a wonderful entry point into the burgeoning field of games user research." -- Randy Pagulayan, Ph.D., Director of User Research, Xbox and Microsoft Studios

"This book is a wonderful addition to our reference library, providing a comprehensive overview of the burgeoning field of games user research." -- Christophe Carvenius, Tactile Entertainment

Games User Research

Edited by Anders Drachen, Pejman Mirza-Babaei, and Lennart Nacke

From Our Blog

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